Information Connection, 0817 WYBJ, Vol. 40 No. 4. 50

AuthorDebora Person Associate Law Librarian University of Wyoming Law Library

Information Connection

Vol. 40 No. 4 Pg. 50

Wyoming Bar Journal

August, 2017

AI Application in the Practice of Law

Debora Person Associate Law Librarian University of Wyoming Law Library

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a major talking-point in the future of legal practice. Te initial usefulness of AI in legal practice has grown out of the unprecedented expansion of big data.[1] Data that could take an attorney months to sort through may be processed by a machine in minutes.

Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term. It refers to natural language processing and machine learning functions. Natural language processing is reading comprehension, so to speak. Te system uses the keywords that you input, explores these terms for synonyms, searches for them within documents, and looks at their context and syntax as well as the content of the surrounding sentences and paragraphs for results. It may next employ machine learning, a technique for detecting patterns and surfacing information using algorithms and by “observing” selections researchers make from results lists or from responses to system queries. Depending on the product, it may then use the data to improve its functionality for similar future searches. In the everyday world, we may see such examples using speech (SIRI or Alexa), vision (CAPTCHA security features for web site authentication),[2] or language (Watson).

Source: CAPTCHA, http://www.captcha.net, copyright Carnegie Mellon University.

The Practice of Law

But what impact does this new technology have on the practice of law? Right now, there isn’t one AI legal tool for all functions but rather many that are performing computations of legal data for different purposes or in specific areas of law. Products like eBrevia, KMStandards, Kira Systems, RAVN, and Luminance perform e-discovery, compliance, contract analysis, case prediction, document automation, or due diligence. Leaving these repetitive tasks to computers frees up attorney time for analyzing the results of the searches. Tough limited mostly to corporate law at this time, we are beginning to see some of these resources touch on other areas of practice. ComplianceHR is specific to Human Resource professionals. Lex Machina specializes in IP law. Ravel Law analyzes actions of specific judges, courts, and firms to predict the most likely outcome of cases, motions, and other litigation tactics.

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